1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, a control method of the image processing apparatus, and a program to be used in the control method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various kinds of communication apparatuses such as a facsimile apparatus which transmits/receives image information to/from an apparatus of a communication partner through a communication line such as a telephone line or an Internet line, and the like have been widely used. In these communication apparatuses, there is the communication apparatus of a type having a timer transmission function. Here, the timer transmission function is the function by which, in a case where a user has previously reserved a transmission date and hour so as to transmit data in the middle of the night or the early morning during which the communication charges are fixed or in a period of time or a time of day which is convenient to the communication partner, a transmission process is automatically performed at the reserved date and hour.
During recent years, in order to achieve leveling of power demand, contracts respectively based on electricity charges for respective periods of time in which the electricity charge varies for each period of time according to a season, a day of the week or the like and real-time electricity charges in which the electricity charge varies every day according to a temperature or the like have been concluded. More specifically, in case of using the electricity charges for respective periods of time, charge information of the electricity charges for the respective periods of time is provided by an electric power company, and power consumption of the apparatus is controlled based on the provided charge information.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-142753, a table of electricity charges in which periods of time have been respectively associated with electricity charges is acquired from a management server, and a reduction period of time in which power consumption of household electrical appliances has to be reduced is determined based on the acquired table of electricity charges. Then, a control command for reducing the power consumption of an apparatus in the determined reduction period of time is generated, and the generated control command is actually transmitted to the apparatus.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-203720, the electricity charge necessary for watching and/or recording a TV (television) program is displayed in a TV (television) program guide, and, when a TV program is selected, the electricity charge of the same TV program provided in another period of time is displayed together with the electricity charge of the selected TV program. By such displays, it is possible to reserve watching and recording of a TV program at the low electricity charge.
However, in the above conventional image processing apparatus transmits/receives the image information, when timer transmission is reserved, it is impossible for a user to grasp whether or not the unit price of the electricity charge at the reserved transmission date and hour corresponds to the unit price of the electricity charge at which the administrator of the apparatus requires the user to restrain from transmitting the image information. For this reason, there is a problem that the user transmits the image information in the period of time of the high electricity charge without restraint.
More specifically, in the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-142753, since the control does not change at the time when the user reserves the timer transmission, there is a problem that the user cannot know the electricity charge at the reserved transmission date and hour.
Moreover, in the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-203720, although the electricity charge is displayed for each TV program, there is a problem that the user cannot know whether or not the displayed electricity charge is based on the unit price of the electricity charge by which watching and recording of the TV program have to be restrained. Moreover, there is a problem that the timer transmission is probably performed at the high electricity charge in a case where the electricity charge at the transmission date and hour is not determined at the time when the user reserves the timer transmission or in a case where the electricity charge of the transmission date and hour is changed after the reservation.
The present invention has been completed in order to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a mechanism which controls the electric power costs by causing the user to designate the timer transmission in the period of time of relatively low unit price of the electricity charges.